Google's deal with French publishers; Vivendi on Universal Music's share capital

TOP NEWS IN TMT

* Google LLC signed an agreement with French publishing lobby group Alliance de la Presse d'Information Générale, or APIG, to pay $76 million over three years to 121 French news publishers to end a long-standing copyright dispute, Reuters reported, citing documents. Agence France-Presse and other French news providers that are not members of APIG will push through with multiple actions against the Alphabet Inc. unit.

* French media conglomerate Vivendi SA is considering a plan to distribute 60% of Universal Music Group Inc.'s share capital to investors.

➤ Marketweek: Shelved TikTok deal shakes Walmart; analysts cheer Twitter's newfound 'swagger'

Shares in Twitter Inc. jumped by as much as 20% this week as investors praised the social platform's better-than-expected earnings results. Meanwhile, a halt in the TikTok Inc. deal saga drove movement in the tech and retail space.

➤ Data Dispatch: AMC paying the price of survival with expensive debt, stock dilution

All told, AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. more than tripled its shares outstanding during the pandemic, up to 374,097,577 shares from 103,849,861 shares reported at the end of 2019, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.

TECHNOLOGY

* International Business Machines Corp. is expanding its cloud offerings in Poland and will help customers to migrate their systems to the company's hybrid cloud, Telecompaper reported, citing Cyfrowa.pl.

INTERNET & OTT

* Spotify Technology SA, the parent company of Sweden-founded Spotify AB, will allow its employees to choose to work either at home, in the office or their preferred geographic location.

* The French government has been in talks with some European Commission officials, as well as some European Parliament members, in an attempt to push for changes in upcoming regulations in a bid to impose stricter rules on digital companies, Financial Times (London) reported.

* French subscription-on-demand-video platform SALTO is now available on Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.'s Smart TVs, offering 15,000 hours of content for €6.99 per month, along with a one-month free trial.

* CANAL+ Group, which won the right to broadcast the current season's Ligue 1 Uber Eats championship, launched a new online channel Canal+ Ligue 1, which will exclusively carry the soccer matches.

* The U.K.'s HM Revenue & Customs' probes into online sellers using e-commerce platforms, such as Amazon.com Inc. and eBay Inc., plunged to just 80 between April and December 2020, compared to 2,684 data requests in the 2019-2020 tax year, Financial Times (London) reported, citing data from a freedom of information request.

MEDIA

* The European Commission is calling for the reversal of the Chinese government's ban on the British Broadcasting Corp.'s programs in the country, saying the move restricts freedom of expression and access to information.

* Vodafone Group PLC unit Vodafone Deutschland Gmbh stopped the distribution of China's state-owned China Global Television Network on its cable services following the media row between the U.K. and China, reported Heise.

* Liberty Global PLC-owned Virgin Media will provide free access to 22 pay TV channels to all its subscribers from Feb. 15 to March 16.

* Luxembourg-based Intelsat SA filed a proposed reorganization plan and disclosure statement that the company said "delivers significant value to all stakeholders in the form of a deleveraged balance sheet. "The plan provides for a new revolver in the amount of $750 million and additional new debt in the amount of $7 billion, which together will provide sufficient liquidity to fund recoveries under the plan and meet post-reorganization working capital needs," the company said.

* ITV PLC appointed Lara Izlan as data strategy director, Clemence Burnichon as data innovation director, Mike Leverington as data experimentation director and Kat Holmes as data governance director.

* Deutsche Telekom AG unit T-Systems International GmbH teamed up with Amazon Web Services Inc. and Microsoft Corp. in line with its new cloud service, called Cloud First, and a focus on cloud computing.

* The European Commission intends to reduce its annual grant to Euronews NBC from the existing €25 million a year, Broadband TV News reported. The four-year agreement, in force since 2017, is set to expire this month, Broadband TV News reported.

* Tibor Stelbaczky, Hungary's ambassador to the EU, requested the Hungarian government "take urgent action" to allow radio station Klubradio to go back on air amid a pending legal case on its broadcasting license, Reuters reported, citing the ambassador's letter.

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

* Norwegian mobile company LINK Mobility Group Holding ASA struck a definitive agreement to acquire Tismi BV a Dutch company providing virtual mobile phone numbers. The transaction assigns Tismi an enterprise value of €20 million.

* U.K. regulator Ofcom slapped a fine of £10.5 million on Telefónica UK Ltd., or O2 UK, for overcharging more than 140,000 customers between 2011 and 2019. Telefónica SA owns O2 UK.

* Ofcom also imposed a fine totaling £50,000 on Khalsa Television Ltd. for failing to abide by U.K. broadcasting rules, specifically relating to a music video and a discussion program.

Click here for a summary of indexes on the MI platform.

Anne Freier, Sylvia Edwards Davis, Marieke Pijnappels and Esben Svendsen contributed to this report.

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